


The Solace of Stillness

by Beginning_Returner



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: (immortal mountain hermit), Gen, In which Kiku withdraws himself and lives up to the appellation of sennin, Life isn't easy when you feel the pain of your people, Medieval Japan, Northern and Southern Courts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 16:45:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14573253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beginning_Returner/pseuds/Beginning_Returner
Summary: Kiku withdraws himself from the world in search of peace during a troubled time in the Middle Ages.





	The Solace of Stillness

It was in the era of the Divided Courts that Kiku, then known as Ookuni no Kikunosuke, decided he'd had enough. He left the material world of violence and deceit behind him, and travelled to a monastery. It was not a large monastery like Houryuu Temple or Enryaku Temple, nor a small one, but a mid-sized establishment that had enough room to house visitors while still devoting individual care to them. 

On his arrival, he found an acolyte sweeping at the gate. The boy recoiled in shock when Kiku approached him and spoke, saying he would like to have a word with the chief priest. Despite the dust of the road and the fact he went to foot and not to horse, it was clear he was of noble origin. 

The boy rushed off down the path to the temple buildings as though he were an arrow shot from a bow. Kicking his straw sandals off in all haste, he raced down the polished outer hallway of the head priest's residence and only narrowly managed to stop himself from sliding straight into the man himself, who had exited his chambers with the intention of giving the boy a firm reprimand for running so loudly. 

It took the priest quite a few minutes to make sense of the boy's breathless explanations and gesticulations. This temple did not often receive distinguished visitors. Even local officials only stopped by infrequently. 

The priest received Kiku with respect, sharing tea with him on the veranda of the monks' residence. When they had sufficiently admired the blossoming plum tree, Kiku turned to him and spoke: "I wish to train at your monastery. My karma will not permit me to become a monk in full, but I wish to stay here as long as I can and learn your ways. Please treat me as you would any of your apprentices, teach me as severely as you would they. The material world will not allow me to be long taken from it, yet I am weary of it and would fain learn how to detach myself from it when its folly becomes too much to bear." 

The high priest acquiesced to his plea, and the unnamed nobleman began his training forthwith. He applied himself with such dedication, that it was not long before he became the object of admiration of all who worked in and visited the temple. 

They did wonder, of course, why he took himself off into the mountains to gather wild foodstuffs whenever a samurai bothered to visit them. On being asked, Kiku simply responded that he had come to the temple to remove himself from the worldly sphere, and any reminder of this sphere was unpleasant to him. 

But villagers who came to the temple, he always welcomed, whether they were there to pray, to ask for sutras to be chanted over their sickly parents, or for funeral arrangements. 

One day, a woman came to the temple. For some reason (doubtless the chestnut harvest in the autumnal forest), most of the regular staff was away that day, leaving only an acolyte who was busy preparing meals and Kiku, who was meditating on the veranda of the monks' residence. He had pledged to the chief priest that he would spend every other day in zazen from dawn till dusk, uninterrupted by any obstacle of the material world. 

On calling out and getting no response from inside the temple hall, the woman hesitantly proceeded to the private areas of the compound, where she soon found Kiku, sitting motionless. Silently she approached him in her bare feet (she'd left her sandals at the door), and prostrated herself before him. 

"Please, I beseech you, pardon my intrusion. My daughter is mortally ill with a sickness for which our village knows no remedy, and I have come to ask whether you might help her." 

Hearing this, Kiku instantly roused himself and fetched the portable medicine box, notified the acolyte, and headed out to her remote hamlet to inspect the child. 

That night, when he'd returned, he explained to the high priest the reason he had broken his vow over a late meal: "For what purpose enlightenment, if I cannot help other sufferers?" 

And with that, the priest had to agree. 

The seasons turned, but still Kiku meditated on the veranda, in defiance of the growing cold. One day, a storm blew up as he sat there, and by the hour of the Dragon, a snow-drift had covered him completely. 

He only smiled when the priest and his apprentices dusted him off in haste and carried him into his chambers. 

"Why did you not leave me?" he said weakly as they laid him on his futon and piled blankets on top. "Only a little more, and I felt certain I would finally have come closer to true enlightenment." 

When a warm bath and hot cloths on the forehead would not heal him, the high priest sent for a doctor. 

As the wise man took his pulse, Kiku glanced over to the sniffling acolytes and priests arrayed in one corner and smiled. 

"If I am to die here, please do not mourn me, for I shall return. Only leave my body in my chamber for a day and a night, and I shall revive." 

Of course neither the priests nor the acolytes believed a word of this. That day, when he passed, they dressed his body in a funereal white robe, folded the opposite way from the living, the acolytes now crying outright at the death of the kind man who'd always helped them with their chores whenever he could. 

Then they left his room and began preparing for the burial. 

The high priest solemnly declared a midnight vigil would be held to recite sutras for the spirit of their brother, for they considered him such despite having taken no vow. 

And as all sat there chanting through the night in the main hall of veneration, an unprepossessing figure in white slipped in and served himself some tea from the pot on the charcoal hibachi near the back, then extracted his rosary from his sleeve, and joined his voice to theirs. 

Deep in concentration as they were, it took a long time for one of the acolytes to note another voice had joined their harmony. 

The loud cry he gave after inching round on his knees and checking behind him, however, was unmissable. 

Irritated beyond belief, the high priest turned from his position in front of the altar. "Chinnen, what on earth has possessed you this time, and how many times must I reprimand you for--" 

Then he too fell silent, as he caught sight of the slight figure that sat at the end of the hall, still clad in his ghostly pale garment folded right over left. 

"I _had_ told you not to bother," he said quietly to the priests frozen with shock. My karma is an uncommon one, you see. For it will not let me attain Buddha-hood, much less another life." 

"What manner of ghost or creature may you be?" said the high priest, shocked. 

"Neither one nor the other, your Grace. I am tied to this land as it is to me. For I am Ookuni no Kikunosuke." 

He rose. 

"I have taken advantage of your hospitality for far too long." 

"Oh no, don't tell me you have to leave like the fox wife or the crane wife now," said Chinnen distraughtly. 

"Chinnen, foolish tales have no place in the hall of the Buddha!" roared the high priest. 

"But Sir, it's TRUE! We disobeyed his strictures, and now he has to leave!" 

The elder man ignored him in favour of standing up and walking over to Kiku. 

"Before you go, I would ask you one thing: why did you wish to learn our way, here in the mountains?" 

"As I told you, I sought detachment from the material world." Kiku knelt down once more, and the priest followed suit. 

"It is not a matter known to many, but the quarrels of the lords and the sufferings they inflict on the commoners causes me grievous pain, in body and soul." 

He sadly contemplated the diffuse candlelit reflection of his face in the polished grain of the floor. 

"If I cannot change the hearts of the nobility against war, then I can at least seek to learn discipline to suppress the pain they cause me through meditation." 

The priest's attitude softened. 

"Then you may stay with us as long as you like, or perhaps, as long as your karma will allow." 

For the first time in a long while, Kiku smiled. 

"Then I will take you up on that offer." 

At this, all the apprentices cheered and the high priest was forced to break off the vigil due to general unruliness among the temple staff. 

 

* * *

 

In the end, fate would only have Kiku remain in that place for ten years. 

The new Shogun Yoshiakira, having learned of Kiku's whereabouts several years before through his personal network of informants, sent a magnificently attired rider to the temple on his accession. 

As the messenger bowed on one knee before him, Kiku sat in his accustomed position on the veranda and unfolded the letter he bore. It was short but informative. To consolidate and further solidify his power, the shogun desperately required Kiku's presence. 

The Most Honourable Being of the Land sighed deeply and folded the paper. So the world had come for him again. 

After tearful farewells from the now-teenage acolytes and their new younger brothers, and the solemn blessings of the priests, he left the monastery the next day, attired in the clothing he'd worn on arrival, which was sure to be ludicrously out of fashion by now. 

But he never forgot the little temple and its staff, and through good times and bad, it continued to receive periodic generous donations from him. 

In the present day, the complex still exists, and distinguishes itself by bearing on both pediment and round eave tiles, the personal crest of a chrysanthemum seen from the side (not the same as the imperial one which shows the flower from the top, evidently!). 

When tourists ask to whom the crest belongs, they are told it is the sign of a worthy and noble house, long affiliated with the imperial line and various shogunates. 

But only the priestly staff knows the true identity of its bearer as the man who quietly visits once a year, dons traditional garb, and meditates on the veranda of the monks' residence, in sight of the blossoming plum in the garden. 

**Author's Note:**

> My blog [is right here](https://modoru-mono.tumblr.com/). I mostly post history and archaeology with a smattering of good Hetalia. Feel free to give me a yell on ask or messenger over there if you enjoyed the fic!
> 
>  **Big disclaimer:** Neither the temple nor Kiku's crest actually exist in real life, and any resemblance to any real-life places or crests is purely coincidental. (Since Kiku actually does mean chrysanthemum, I thought that, in the alternate universe of Hetalia, he might have special imperial license to use a variant depiction of the flower for his crest!) If you have more elaborate headcanons on what Kiku's name may have been in past eras, please let me know-- I'll be happy to change my writing for the sake of accuracy. Also, if this story contains any inaccuracies with regard to history or historical Japanese Buddhist practices, please let me tell me immediately-- I am always open to fixing for the sake of accuracy.
> 
> Notes:
> 
>  **Divided Courts:** [The Nanboku-chou period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanboku-ch%C5%8D_period) is one of the most complex and strife-laden eras of Japanese history.
> 
>  **Gather wild foodstuffs:** Foraging for food in the wild was part of the seasonal routine for commoners, and such gathered foods were also employed in [Buddhist vegetarian cuisine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansai).
> 
>  **Hour of the Dragon:** Traditionally, China and Japan (possibly also Korea? feel free to correct me on this) [divided their days up into two-hour segments, each named after one of the zodiac animals](https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Zodiac#Hours).
> 
>  **Hibachi:** This is actually just a Japanese term for [braziers used to keep things warm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibachi). Monks apparently [drink tea to stay awake](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bodhidharma), so I surmised the ones in the story would keep some tea warm nearby while conducting a vigil (again, if this is inaccurate, let me know).
> 
>  **The fox wife or the crane wife:** See [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuru_no_Ongaeshi) for a quick discussion of these legends. I am happy to report that the fox wife is, from what I've seen, not cast as evil or even remotely bad in these stories, contrary to some stereotypes. Most of these tales fit into the [Animal Wife](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden) folklore tale type, though there is also a variant from Japan where the woman is a [willow-tree spirit](https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/japanlove.html#willow).
> 
>  **Main hall of veneration/hall of the Buddha:** An overview of Japanese temple architecture can be found [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shichid%C5%8D_garan)
> 
>  **Round eave tiles:** A close translation of the actual Japanese term (nokimarugawara) for these decorative elements, [seen bearing a crest in this picture](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Himeji_Castle_No09_055.jpg).


End file.
